more-in Ramanathapuram Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon. Radhakrishnan has said the ‘Ayushman Bharat Yojana’ recently launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would go a long way in helping the poor to meet the unexpected medical expenses and prevent loss of lives for want of money for best medical treatment. Addressing after inaugurating the upgraded health and wellness centre at Thamaraikulam in Mandapam block on Sunday, he said Mr. Modi had launched the scheme to benefit about 11 crore poor families and 50 crore family members in the country after realising that many poor families could not afford to provide the best medical treatment when a family member fell sick. Under the scheme, hailed as ‘Modi care’, a health cover of ? 5 lakh was made available per family per year for secondary and tertiary medicalcare and in case of hospitalisation, the family need not pay for treatment as the Modi government would settle the bill up to ? 5 lakh, he said. Describing this as one of the biggest healthcare scheme, not even available in developed countries such as the US and Canada, Mr. Radhakrishnan said the health cover of ?5 lakh would be given to a family year after year for 20 years and each of the 11 crore families covered under the scheme would get benefits to the tune of ?1 crore. He said when people saved money for buying lands, vehicles and performing weddings of their children some serious health issues in the family, requiring tertiary care, would get rid of the entire savings. Besides, the Modi government had also decided to upgrade 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres with enhanced medical facilities throughout the country to provide best medical care for rural people. He had inaugurated many such centres in the State and the centre in Thamaraikulam was one of the best, he said. Congratulating the health department on maintaining infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate at the minimal in the district, he exhorted the doctors to bring down the rate to nil. Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao and Deputy Director (health services) B. Kumaragurubaran were present.

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